I know I never give an individual bodypart workout but if your biceps are lagging you can throw this in at the end of a workout.
“…sometimes to build a muscle, or at least make it appear larger than normal, you have to look beyond attacking only the target bodypart.
What the heck are we talking about? Well, the biceps is a perfect example. There’s a muscle that snakes underneath that upper-arm mass, and when you build it, it pushes the biceps skyward. You may have heard of it, because Arnold was a big proponent of training it for arm mass. It’s the brachialis. If you want your arms to take on new dimensions fast, you gotta build this muscle!
When your upper arm is up and flexed to show off the biceps, the brachialis is a knotty mass on the outside of the arm that sits between the biceps and triceps. And when that sucker is pumped and plumped, you’ll get a more gnarly, jagged peak to your biceps so that every time you flex, people’s eyes will pop out of their heads. (Your arms will look much bigger just hanging at your side too because of the new thickness and density.)
First, the best exercise: According to MRI studies, the incline hammer curl really lights up the brachialis. Why is it so good? Because lying back on an incline bench with your arms straight down angling back behind your torso and your thumbs facing forward puts the brachialis in an elongated state. Remember what we said about stretch-position exercises? They trigger extreme anabolic responses in muscle tissue and also have the potential to stimulate fiber splitting. One study produced a 300 percent muscle mass increase in a bird’s wing with stretch overload—in only one month! (Stretch-position exercises for each bodypart are identified in The Ultimate Mass Workout e-book.)
But getting a muscle bigger faster takes more than just working it in the stretch position. Remember, you want capillary bed expansion and maximum fiber recruitment as well. Here’s how to get it all in just two sets:
Set 1: Use a pair of dumbbells that allow you to get 10 reps in pistionlike fashion—no rest at the top or bottom, 1 1/2 seconds up and 1 1/2 seconds down. Keep tension on the brachialis muscles throughout the set, and when you reach nervous system exhaustion, do X Rep pulses from just out of the full stretch position at the bottom to just below the middle of the stroke. If you can’t pulse, do a static contraction—hold the weight steady—at that max-force point till you can’t stand the burn. Rest about two minutes and admire the swelling that’s happening—but it’s just the beginning. Now for the money set...
Set 2: Use less weight on this set, as you’ll be using the Double-X Overload technique. Between each rep, do an X Rep at the bottom—the max-force point again for maximum fiber recruitment. When you can’t manage another full rep, do X Reps or a static hold at that sweet spot—but you’re not done (even though your arms will be screaming). Now stand up and do regular hammer curls to extend the set. You may only get a couple, but it will be the muscle-building icing on the cake!
Do this quick-hit torture session after your normal biceps routine, as biceps curls hit the brachialis with big midrange work. The above brachialis attack will be the finisher and provide unique fiber activation, occlusion and extended tension time for capillary bed expansion—and the stretch will kick up anabolic hormone release and may even trigger some fiber splitting. In other words, it’ll put some freak on your biceps peak!—Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson www.X-Rep.com"
Best of luck
Tom
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